You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

Team 1

Spreadsheet https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Marnie
Ammee R
Grainne
Janice
Nix
LondonLori

Just starting our thread so people can check in. I haven’t even read through all the prompts yet but will start gophering later

Some ideas

Team name
Spreadsheet maker
Scorekeeper

I don’t know how to do spreadsheets but I can volunteer to keep score unless someone else wants to.

This should be fun teammates!

Hello team. So this is my first toppler. I am excited to be on the team. I am just starting to gopher.

I am open to helping anyway I can. I just am not full sure what I am doing yet so any advice would be great. What are we using the spreadsheet for? I am good with spreadsheets unless someone has experience with what to use it for in the toppler sense and wants to do it again.

I am also up for any tips that you may have.

Hi all! How is everyone doing?

Ammee, congrats on your first toppler, I am sure it will be a lot of fun reading! The spreadsheet can be used to keep track of the tasks and for people to claim tasks that work for them. As you see there are extra points up for grabs on finishing a category, often it is helpful to see everything in a sheet to see what task everyone wants to do and try to aim for those segments first where we have the most number of books. So, the spreadsheet will essentially entail all the tasks and columns for people to claim / points/ formulas for bonus pts etc - just automating the tracking process to make it easier if it makes sense.

My husband will be here the week of the toppler so I am opting out of being the one to keep track of things or spreadsheet. We are doing a long distance and just got married in Nov. This is the first time I will be seeing him after we got married so I am pretty excited. I will still try to get some books in but I am excited for the Valentine's weekend!

Ammee the best tip I can give you is to find whatever book(s) you want to get read during topples week. Let’s say you comfortably can read two and they match up to a task we need. That’s fantastic !

If you finish those early then you look to see which tasks are not assigned to anyone yet and gopher for that.

Some books can fit more that one task so if yours does put down both tasks during the planning stages which gives our spreadsheet person more flexibility.

Nistha sounds like you will have an exciting week. I did the long distance thing when I first got married too. It has its good parts too and I wish you a joyous reunion.

Off to gopher

How to Solve Your Own Murder ( ski lodge- bird on cover )

Off the Air ( Ranch- set in Arizona)

The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi ( Beach- octopus on cover)

Good Girls Don’t Die ( mountain- cabin as significant setting)

These are the books I already have and can comfortably read. I am going to read them anyway so if I need to gopher in a different direction I’m happy to do that as well.

Hi Teamies! I'm off to gopher. I'm not sure how many books I can read this toppler. I'll commit to 2 and then see what evolves.

Welcome Aimmee. If you're good with spreadsheets, this might be a task for you. Best is to watch for when the other teams post their spreadsheets and go from there, We need to list each vacation type (mountain, beach house, city, etc), and each team member. Oh, and each prompt as well. The goal for the team is to complete each section and all it's tasks to earn extra points. Scoring thread indicates what's required. It's also a tool that helps us determine what prompts need to be filled.

We have time to build the spreadsheet. If it looks too daunting for you, don't feel obligated to volunteer.

This month is a little crazy for me. I'm going on holidays for real on March 3th, and that means it's a bottle neck to meet deadlines at the end of the month and prepare for being away. Otherwise, I'd take a little more of an active part.

How can it be Feb 10th already?? Ack!

I am going to read

Wonder if this body of water is large enough to work for the large body of water in the task(beach)

Or else it works for dog in the cover (city)

If I have more time, I have possible options for now (offcourse not going to read all, just shortlisting :p)
- Love in the Big City for City in the title (city)
- Klara and the Sun for Sun in the title (Ranch)
- The Christmas Appeal - snow in cover (ski) / theater (City)
- Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight - fish in title (lake)
- - snow on cover (ski)
- - famous architecture (city)


Can gopher more if needed in different direction

I was able to find some old spreadsheets and I think I may be able to do it. I am going to keep looking and see if there is a format I like best that I can use as a reference. I will work on that.

I looked up list of vacation theme names. Below are some that I liked:

Seas the Day
Suite Dreams
Tropic like it's hot
Sea-kers
Shellebration
Take the sea-nic route
Seek to Sea-more
Havana Great Time

You are so awesome Ammee.

I'll vote for Seas the Day, but would happily agree with any name for the team.

I started gophering, and need to stop. I've just started Beach. There are so many options.

So for mountain, I could go for:
Set in Canada - The Strangers
Cabin setting - The Bones Beneath My Skin
Coyote in title - Coyote Waits

I'm going to do more gophering tomorrow, so there likely will be changes.

Ammee, pop over to team 3 and sneak a peak at Jayme's spreadsheet. That might be helpful to you.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Here is the spreadsheet I have put together so far. I will continue to add to it.

Janice wrote: "Ammee, pop over to team 3 and sneak a peak at Jayme's spreadsheet. That might be helpful to you."

Haha yeah I did i used it as a main template and added a few columns. I am glad we are on the same wavelength though lol.

Ammee wrote: "https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

Here is the spreadsheet I have put together so far. I will continue to add to it."

Can you make it accessible? It's saying I need to log in to get access.

Yes I have changed it sorry about that

Oops - Team 2 is also considering "Seas the Day". Why don't we try Sea-kers, or Shellebration?

I am kind of leaning towards Team Shellebration but I am find with either.

I like it!

Oooh! I like the spreahsheet, Ammee.

Marnie, could you add the link to msg 1 so it's easy to find?

So I was thinking about reading the following:

Beach Read Beach: beach in the title
That Summer Lake House: beach on the cover
Turtles All the Way Down Lake House: Turtle in the title
Water for Elephants Lake House: Water in the title
The Sun Is Also a Star Ranch: Sun in the title

I am open to keep looking if we need to change things around to get more points

The spreadsheet is fabulous. Well done Ammee! When everyone has checked in with their book ideas I may shuffle a book or two so we can maximize points.

Delighted to be joining you all for the Toppler! Gosh everyone seems to be hard at work already. Thank you for setting up the team thread Marnie! That’s exciting Nistha, and you’ve already chosen your book. It’s great that you joining Ammee and thrilled to be on your team for your first Toppler! I remember my first Toppler and it was fantastic because everyone was a great support so my advice is to keep us posted. Plans change, as they do, so pop in the chat and let everyone know if you can read more or less. Thank you for setting up the spreadsheet and score keeping.

I put Guncle in the large body of water spot. Would this best go there or with a dog on the title?

I was also planning on reading for the annual challenge. I was thinking we could possibly use it for either trees on the cover or maybe farm house on the cover?

I am hoping to do a good amount as I am planning on listening to audiobooks but as this is my first i am not sure what all I can do. So I think I can definitely do 4 or 5 but may be able to do more. I may gopher options for open ones to be able fill in where needed.

Hey, I just sent a request for permission to access the spreadsheet.

Ammee, if it fits in two spots then choose one that's blank and in brackets include the other categories. So for example,

I plan to read The Hunting Party for Ski Lodge because it has snow on the cover of the edition that I am going to read but it could also fit for Mountain (set in a cabin) or Lake House (set in Scotland).

I'll choose whichever spot needs filling and then I will be aware that it can be moved if needed to fill another spot. How about if we use the excel sheet numbers.

I'll fill in line 42 of the sheet (when I get access) and write (26,10) beside it so we can see where it might be possible to move it to when I've read it.

I gave you access. I apologize i thought i had it set where everyone can view and edit. I am newer to google docs. I will look into and fix it :)

Okay i was more just concerned if you thought it would count towards a task. I didn’t want to put a book in a spot and have people plan around it. Then find out it didn’t work and everyone had to scramble.

Not to worry, I seldom use Google docs too. I have access now and I can edit it. On the cover of that book, I can see trees on the cover, I can see a bird, but I don't know about the setting.

I have updated the google doc so that everyone can add their books to the spreadsheet if they want to.

I think we just have one teammate we haven't heard from yet correct?

I have been gophering for the open topics to have a ideas to move around if we need to.

It looks like How to Solve Your Own Murder is an orphan book right now. I could swap it out for The Burning which has a fence on the cover and would get us the bonus points for the Ranch vacation.

I have both books so I will save it until a game time decision but it is a possibility.

Are we all reading in different time zones lol? It’s Tuesday morning here. @Marnie If you have a book with a fence on the cover and it finishes The Ranch category that would be great 😁 There’s bonus points for finishing the category, right?

Monday evening here. I'm thinking it's going to be an early night.

I noticed that we just need a book with Nature in the title to complete "Mountain". Any takers?

I did find a book with Nature in the title but I wanted to make sure that Nix and London Lori had the option to choose books. I only put one book on the list for Nix as I wasn't sure how many they wanted to read more.

If I do I may need to switch it out with one of the items or maybe make them more of a tentative instead of a for sure.

It is also Monday evening here.

I am in London so its quite late a Monday night (almost 2am) here.. Just finished work and then reading a thriller!

Unfortunately, I would not immediately commit to many books for this toppler yet - you can put me for "fish" in the title for Fish Swimming in Dappled Sunlight

I know I said I would commit to 2 books, but I think I can do 3. I can do one audiobook on the saturday, start the kindle book to read all week, and then another audiobook for the remainder of the week.

I’ve added 3 books to the spreadsheet.

Mountains

Nature in title: The Secret Network of Nature: The Delicate Balance of All Living Things

Lake House

House in title: Full Dark House
Set in Scotland: The Distant Echo

I’m in the UK but no longer in London.

Yay!! That closed up Mountain, Lake House, and Ranch.

I'll gopher more if and when I finish a planned book.

I am excited that it is almost time to start. I have been looking for a few extra books just in case i can add more. All in all I am excited though.

Will be a fun Toppler. I’m excited for the books I have planned plus scoping out everyone’s reads.

Am I the scorekeeper? If so I’ll set up the reporting thread otherwise I’ll just sit back and read.

I'm also looking forward to the toppler. Woohoo!

I have my book ready to go! I am excited to start.

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Reporting thread

One more day 🏝️

I'm downloading my first book as I type. I hope I finish the kindle book I'm currently reading today. I'm at about 80% and things are heating up. I don't want to set it aside for a week. But right now, I need a nap. Grace keeps waking me before 6:00 in the morning and then I can't get back to sleep. I have an automatic feeder set for 7:00, but she starts getting anxious early. That's when she starts knocking everything off the dresser.

Is everyone ready to go? Glasses cleaned, headphones charged? I finished my book last night, so that's perfect timing.

I'm going to work the couple of hours (deadlines looming) before the toppler begins. Remember most of all is to have fun!

Happy reading.

It’s midnight here so I am off to bed soon. I have my book ready so I’ll start after breakfast tomorrow morning.

Here we go. Happy reading!

It’s go time!! Happy reading everyone!!

Im beginning with deep in the valley for the tree task.